It was an
emotional trip down the memory lane for the former students of
the School of Business Management, Accounting and Finance, Sri
Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam, when
they gathered at the Lotus Feet of their beloved Swami on the
20th and 21st of August for their Alumni Meet aptly called
'Reconnect'. This meet was organized on the occasion of the eve
of the 20th anniversary of the department coinciding with the
80th year of the Advent of Bhagawan. Ever since the School of
Business Management, Accounting and Finance offering MBA (Master
of Business Administration) was started on 21st August, 1986,
Bhagawan took a keen interest in fostering the business leaders
of the future into change agents who would spread His message of
values into the corporate world. For many years after the
inception of the department, Bhagawan would visit the Institute
every week to deliver talks on management to the students. It
was during these talks that Bhagawan succinctly summarized the
science of management as 'Man Management'. This concept is only
now catching on in business thought, but Bhagawan had already
identified it as the key to successful management more than a
decade ago. It was to offer their gratitude to Bhagawan for all
the care and attention He had showered on them during their stay
as students that around 500 members of the alumni gathered at
Prasanthi Nilayam to bask yet again in the sunshine of His Love
and thus 'reconnect' and 'recharge' themselves.

On
the evening of 20th, after words
of introduction
by Sri A.V. Gokak, Vice-Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute
of Higher Learning, two members of the
alumni expressed their feeling of love and gratitude on behalf
of their brothers. The alumni had arranged for distribution of
comprehensive toolkits and uniforms to 80 needy youth trained as
electricians, carpenters and plumbers belonging to villages
surrounding Prasanthi Nilayam. These men though possessing the
necessary skills continued to remain unemployed as they did not
have the wherewithal to procure the necessary tools. But, now
Bhagawan has gifted them not merely toolkits but also the means
to live a life of dignity.

Following
this, there was a panel discussion on "Man Management –
Relevance of Values in the Business World". Seven members of the
alumni spanning various sectors of the industry and occupying
senior positions in their respective organizations participated
in the discussion that focused on how Bhagawan's teachings
helped them to deal with the pressures and difficult situations
that arise in corporate life, drawing on their own experiences
and insights. One very significant point that emerged during the
discussion was how one can reconcile the pursuit of corporate
excellence with spirituality. Sri
Karthik Shenoi, CEO, iCap Solutions Pvt. Ltd., illustrated how
this reconciliation can be achieved by recalling an allegory
given by Bhagawan. Bhagawan compares the pursuit of worldly
goals to attempting to get at the coconuts on a coconut tree by
running up the shadow of the tree on the ground and tugging at
the shadow coconuts – a fruitless enterprise. But, when one
actually climbs up the coconut tree, one's shadow is also seen
climbing the tree. What this analogy reveals to us is that
according highest priority to spiritual goals is not necessarily
divergent with life in the material world; in fact worldly
success gets added on to us as a matter of course on the
spiritual path. Speaking about the means of dealing with stress,
the panelists concluded that stress arises whenever
self-interest dominates one's thinking. But, when we follow
Bhagawan's teaching that the feeling of 'We' must be placed
above the 'I' feeling, one is not affected by stressful
situations. Another member said that one must follow the
principle of 100% commitment and 0% attachment leaving the
burden of victory or defeat to the Lord. Stress, they said stood
for Sai To the Rescue in Every Sticky Situation. Teamwork, which
is an important quality that every employer looks for, is
something that students of
Bhagawan do not learn merely in theory but it comes to the fore
during the Annual Sports and Cultural Meet and the community
service programmes, which are a regular and integral part of the
education at Bhagawan's university. The discussion thus
showcased how spirituality can be integrated into our daily life
to make it more meaningful and enriching. At the end of the
programme Bhagawan profusely blessed the participants, who
enjoyed some blissful moments of interaction with Him.

On
the morning of 21st, after an introductory talk by Sri Subash
Subramanian, an MBA alumnus and currently a Research Scholar in
the School of Business Management, Accounting and Finance, there
were talks by two alumni. The first speaker, Sri Amar Vivek, is
a practicing lawyer in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and
also at the Supreme Court of India. He belongs to the first
batch of students who earned their MBA degree from Bhagawan's
university. He has been engaged in many rural service projects
most notably, the Sri Sathya Sai Grameen Jagruthi programme
under which a hospital, a school, a vocational training center
and a sports school are being run for the benefit of the rural
poor completely free of charge. His service programmes have
earned him recognition from the Government of India and he was
conferred the National Youth Award. He narrated how Bhagawan had
personally guided him in setting up and managing these service
projects, His unseen Hand helping him ford over obstacles on the
way. He also narrated two instances where by standing up to his
principles he managed, by Bhagawan's grace, to turn two
seemingly impossible situations in his favour.

Sri Ashok Sundaresan, who spoke next, is a Chartered Accountant
by profession, and an active member of the Youth wing of the Sri
Sathya Sai Seva Organization, Tamil Nadu. He said that being a
student of Bhagawan is a privilege and opportunity and also a
great responsibility. He narrated an experience of late Prof
N.Kasturi to emphasize our good fortune in being contemporaries
of Bhagawan. Once, Sri
Kasturi had asked Bhagawan about the mystery of creation.
Bhagawan called Him one night to the balcony of the Prasanthi
Mandir, held his hand and asked him to look onto the grounds
below. Kasturi Garu was rendered speechless by what he saw; in
place of the inky darkness he was accustomed to, he saw what
seemed to be a sea of luminous beings, all waiting for
Bhagawan's
command. Bhagawan seemed to
be communicating to them by His eyes, and one by one after
receiving their commands they left to execute them. This,
Bhagawan revealed to Kasturi, was how the entire creation was
being managed. And Sri Kasturi realized that at that moment, the
Hand he was holding on to was the Hand of the Creator Himself.
Sri Sundaresan recalled the numerous lessons he had absorbed
during his days as a student at the Lotus Feet of Bhagawan that
had transformed his life. He narrated an incident to illustrate
how we must express our gratitude, an incident that was widely
reported by the print media. When the Sathya Sai Ganga project
to supply potable water to the city of Chennai was underway,
there was a family of eleven members all of whom were engaged in
work on the canal. The eldest member was eighty years old, and
the youngest all of three years. When asked, they revealed that
they belonged to the Mahabubnagar District of Andhra Pradesh
where Bhagawan had executed a water supply project in 2001.
Before the project, the family members had to traverse miles for
finding potable water and this had completely disrupted their
normal life even making earning their livelihood a difficult
prospect. But, now water was arriving almost at their doorstep,
their suffering was now behind them. In gratitude, the entire
family had decided to contribute their mite, in the form of
physical labour, to the Chennai water supply project. In
conclusion, Sri Sundaresan prayed to Bhagawan for strength to
able to practice His teachings and to love up to His
expectations of His students.

After
the talks, there was a music programme entitled 'Yaadein' by the
alumni. Each song was preceded by short talks by students who
poured out their love and gratitude to Bhagawan, each of them
recalling memories of the beautiful moments they spent with
their Lord as students and also how Swami guided and guarded
them several times during their lives thereafter. At the end of
the programme, everyone
realized that though they may have left the portals of the
Institute, they can never leave Swami nor can Swami ever leave
them; Swami was always with them and their bond with Him was
eternal and heart to heart.

In the afternoon, the management students
of the Institute presented a drama entitled, "Karishye Vachanam
Tava" meaning, "Command, and I shall obey!" The drama depicted
how two young management graduates who had
recently joined Navajivan Pharma Co. face many
difficulties and disappointments due to the unethical
behaviour
of a manager, how they overcome these difficulties, and become
instrumental in guiding the company to make decisions that go
beyond just financial criteria and contribute to the welfare of
the society. The drama addressed many issues and ethical
dilemmas that face the managers of today's corporate world and
how they should be dealt with discrimination and a clear
conscience.

After the drama, Bhagawan granted photos to the participants.
Bhagawan also blessed and launched the website of the Institute
– www.sssihl.org
. The programme concluded with arati and Bhagawan retired to His
residence.